Optically Excited Micromechanical Resonator Pressure Sensor

Abstract

There has been considerable interest shown in a new class of optical sensors based on the phenomenon whereby light from an intensity modulated optical source induce transverse vibrations of a micromechanical resonator on which it is incident (1). Such micromechanical resonators have most commonly been fabricated in single crystal silicon using processing steps which include photolithography, impurity diffusion and anisotropic chemical etching (2).